Winter Writing Immersion: Imagination, Memory, and Messaging

This workshop is open to anyone who is curious about writing. No prior experience is necessary.
This refreshing four-hour evening workshop is an invitation to explore both interior and exterior ecosystems, paying attention to the quiet or invisible things all around us. Imagine the different ways in which humans and animals receive and send messages, and how those messages traverse time and geography. Consider how messages are stored in individual and collective memories, in landscapes, and in water.
The class will discuss the benefit of taking notes field notes and observations, as well as notes from our interiors considering two distinct spheres of noticing. It will also explore strategies for “unsticking” our creative selves, even on the darkest of winter days. Calling on poetry, science, images, and imagination, instruction will spiral between internal and external systems, exploring new forms and sensations in our physical bodies, our thinking minds, and our creative work.
Attendees can expect to come away with material to spark future writing projects. A reading and resource list will be sent one week before the workshop, meant to orient and offer context for time together. Great for connecting to an emerging community of local writers and creators.
Instructor Chandra Brown is an educator, river guide, and writer originally from Alaska. She has worked within the realm of river conservation since her 2010 Fulbright grant to Ecuador, and she founded Freeflow Institute in 2017. Her stories can be found in places like Adventure Journal, The Dirtbag Diaries, Kayak Session, NRS, and Patagonia. Chandra earned her M.S. in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana and has called Missoula home since 2014.